Think ObamaCare Is Unpopular Now? Wait Until Next Year

Health Reform: Months before ObamaCare takes full effect, its popularity has hit an all-time low. And that’s before the public experiences firsthand the many ill effects it will impose on the nation’s health care system.
Shortly before Democrats rammed ObamaCare through Congress, President Obama’s pollster, Joel Benenson, wrote in the Washington Post that “once reform passes, the tangible benefits Americans will realize will trump the fear-mongering rhetoric opponents are stoking today.”

Not quite.

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll finds 49% now say ObamaCare is “a bad idea” — the highest negative rating ever in that survey. And the share who feel “strongly” about this climbed from 38% in May 2010 — just after the law passed — to 43% today.

At the other end of the spectrum, just 37% believe ObamaCare is a good idea.

That’s in keeping with the Kaiser Family Foundation’s monthly tracking poll, which shows that support for ObamaCare is now just 35%, down from 46% just after Obama signed it into law. Even support among Democrats has softened considerably, falling from 78% when the law passed to just 57% today.

The Kaiser poll also found that more than half think the law’s critics should keep trying to block or change it.